Millerville History
Millerville Township, Douglas County, Minnesota, USA
"Mannie the Tramp"
Jon's Jargon
by Jon Haaven
Lake Region Press
©June 29, 1978
Vol. 35, No. 12
The news release from the Douglas County Historical Society called
him "Money". However, Mrs. Tina Van Sickle of Evansville remembers
him as "Mannie", short for Emanual. We ran Mannie's picture in a
recent publication to help publicize a special slide presentation
on Evansville's past held last Sunday.
"The picture brought back many memories," Mrs. Van Sickle wrote
this week. "He had many a meal and sometimes stayed overnight at
our place, two miles north of Brandon. My parents, Mr. and Mrs.
A. J. Peterson never turned any of the tramps and peddlars away
without giving them all they could eat, and there were quite a
few of them those days."
"Mannie," as pointed out by the local historical society, was a
well-known tramp who wandered around Douglas County back in the
early days.
"We never knew much about Mannie as he talked very little," continues
Mrs. Van Sickle. "But we could not have him sleep in a bed as he was
so infested with lice, so we kept some old quilts in the machine
shed and took them in when he came. He was perfectly satisfied to
sleep on the floor. Aside from the lice, he was perfectly harmless."
Mrs. Van Sickle also remembers another tramp who walked these parts
years ago. "We called him 'The Ginseng Man", she recalls. "He would
go through the woods and dig ginseng (an herb with an aromatic root
used medicinally by the Chinese). He was more talkative and he would
ask for garden and flower seeds. We gave them to him and then he
would give some of them to the people at the next place he stopped."
"I still, after maybe 50-60 years," she says, "have some very good
bean seeds he brought to our place one day." (Thanks, Tina, for
sharing your memories with the Jargon readers.)
E-mail: dwagner2@isd.net
©2003 DJW
Last Modified:
November 5, 2003